In 1852, a group of German immigrants along the banks of Cypress Creek
at the confluence of the Guadalupe River. Composed largely of Free Thinkers,
and liberals, Comfort was the heart of Union sentiments during the Civil
War, and it the site of the only monument to Union war dead in the South,
the True Der Union Momument which commemorates the Nueces Massacre. Much
of the downtown area is on the National Register of Historic Places.

Federal records indicate that Thomas Jugenhutt opened a brewery in Cypress
Creek, but local history suggests that brewery was in Comfort. I beleive
the Federal Records are incorrect, perhaps a result of reading a cursive
"I" for "J," and that the location on the banks of
Cypress Creek were assumed to be in the community of Cypress Creek.

Ingenhuett Brewery 1878 - c. 1884 Thoman and Martin Ingenhuett arrived in Comfort in 1854, along with
their parents from Kirchofen Germany. Their brother Peter, who had arrived
a couple of years earlier, eventually ran a hotel in town. Thomas and
Martin opened their lager beer brewery in 1878 on the Banks of the Cypress
Creek. Martin died in 1881, and Thomas ran the brewery alone until around
1887. Guido Ransleben's book A Hundred Years of Comfort, says that
the arrival of ice-cold beer on the train closed the brewery. Thomas could
not afford to refrigerate his beer.

Thomas
Ingenhuett, circa 1870.

The Germans in Comfort were practical in their love of beer. One year,
on July 3, the Goldbeck brothers saw kegs of Menger beer on a railroad
car. They realized the beere would spoil if not consumed quickly. They
fired the cannon that called the citizens together in case of Indian attack.
When the Goldbergs explained the situation, the angry citizens quickly
decided to celebrate July 4th a day early.